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Outstanding Alumni Awards

NTU introduced its Outstanding Alumni Awards in 2007. The award recognises the vital role former students play in raising the University's profile through their distinctive attainments, professional success and contributions to society.

Nominate your peer for the Outstanding Alumni Awards

We need your help in identifying and nominating peers from your own NTU alumni networks, who you feel are deserving of this accolade. Nominees should demonstrate considerable success in one or more of the areas above and be considered as a leader within this field(s).

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Diana Ali (BA Hons Fine Art 2001) – 2020 Outstanding Alumni Award recipient
Artist, lecturer, arts educator, and mentor on the BBC show The Big Painting Challenge, Life Drawing Live of which she was nominated for a BAFTA and Channel 4's Drawers off.

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Dr Rachel Bolton-King (BSc Hons in Forensic Science 2008; PhD in Forensic Firearms Identification and Imaging 2012) – 2022 Outstanding Alumni Award recipient
Associate Professor of Forensic Science at Staffordshire University and Editor-in-Chief of the Science & Justice journal.

Jon Burgerman (BA Hons Fine Art 2001) – 2016 Outstanding Alumni Award recipient
Jon Burgerman is a global leader in the popular 'doodle' art style. Known for his instantly recognisable pop-art cartoon aesthetic, his works exist across a multitude of forms including canvases, large-scale murals, sculpture, toys, colouring books and more. His work is exhibited internationally and features in the permanent collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) and Science Museum, London.

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Elizabeth Carr (BA Hons English 2007) – 2018 Outstanding Alumni Award recipient
In May 2016, Lizzie Carr – also known as Lizzie Outside – became the first person to paddleboard the length of England’s connected waterways. Alone and unsupported, she completed the 400-mile journey in 22 days, plotting over 2,000 photos of the plastic pollution she encountered. One year on, Lizzie became the first woman to stand-up paddleboard across the English Channel solo. Her record-breaking crossing took seven hours, and drew attention to the bigger story of plastic pollution in our oceans. In July 2018 Lizzie launched #PlasticPatrol – a nationwide campaign to rid our waterways of plastic pollution.

Bethan Chilton (BA Hons Fashion and Textiles Management 2008) – 2018 Outstanding Alumni Award recipient
After graduation Beth secured work at a fashion industry start-up, and was able to help it grow into a successful business. Bolstered by this experience of running a small company, Beth identified a gap in the market for beautifully designed occasionwear at affordable prices, and set up the fashion label Hope and Ivy with her business partner Sarah Sleightholm. Determined to expand, Beth and Sarah applied to Dragon’s Den and pitched their idea for an e-commerce site. They left the Den with £78,000 and the backing of “Dragons” Deborah Meaden and Peter Jones. Today Hope and Ivy products are sold all over the world by large fashion retailers and independent boutiques. In just three years, their annual turnover surpassed an impressive £2 million.

Nicole Crentsil (BA Hons Product Design 2014) – 2021 Outstanding Alumni Award recipient
Ghanaian-British businesswoman, changemaker, angel investor and cultural curator.

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Jane Donald (BA Hons Graphic Design 2003) – 2019 Outstanding Alumni Award recipient
Jane Donald is a global tour manager and production co-ordinator in the music industry. She has worked with some of the highest profile artists of our time. Jane has assisted Stevie Nicks, Rick Springfield and Rick Nielsen. She has been on the road with Mariah Carey, Blink 182 and Tenacious D, and worked with the likes of Kanye West, Pharrell Williams and Ariana Grande. She has taken Foo Fighters through four full international touring and promotion cycles across six continents. In 2019 alone Jane has tour managed Sara Bareilles and Miley Cyrus, and has recently returned from supervising Childish Gambino's Australian tour and American festival dates.

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Dr Anino Emuwa (DBA 2016) – 2019 Outstanding Alumni Award recipient
Dr Anino Emuwa is an international management consultant with over 25 years' professional experience in Europe and Africa. A former corporate banker with Citibank, Anino is the founder and Managing Director of Avandis Consulting in France and Nigeria. Anino is a highly respected advocate for women in business leadership. She has been invited to speak at Facebook, ING, the French National Assembly, the Institute of Directors, the University of Cambridge, and the London School of Economics. She is an experienced non-executive director, a Fellow for the Chartered Management Institute, and a member of the Institute of Directors. She is also an AACSB-certified business school instructor, and an Alumni Fellow of Nottingham Business School.

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Chris Furber (BSc Hons Sport (Administration and Science) 1999) – 2009 Outstanding Alumni Award recipient
As the Lead Coach for the British Para-Cycling Squad in 2006, Chris led the team through three World Championships and a Paralympic Games, earning an incredible 50 gold medals along the way, including 17 golds and three silvers at the 2008 Beijing Paralympics. In May 2013, Chris was appointed the National Performance Director for Para-Swimming.

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Selasi Gbormittah (BA Hons Economics and Financial Services 2008) – 2020 Outstanding Alumni Award recipient
Great British Bake Off semi-finalist 2016, pastry chef and TV personality.

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Sue Hayward (BSc Hons Landscape and Heritage 2004) – 2020 Outstanding Alumni Award recipient
RHS Chelsea Flower Show award-winning garden designer, in aid of Motor Neurone Disease.

Daniel Hill (BA Hons Business Studies 2009) – 2019 Outstanding Alumni Award recipient
Daniel Hill is an investor, developer and serial entrepreneur. He is the founder and chairman of Pulse Trading Group, an award-winning consortium of ten privately owned commercial businesses. Specialising in the multi-let market, Daniel's businesses currently operate over 500 house-in-multiple-occupation (HMO) rooms in the Midlands.  They have expanded across the country, with new offices in Luton, Bedford, Leeds and Milton Keynes.

Lucy Horobin (BA Hons Broadcast Journalism 2003) – 2021 Outstanding Alumni Award recipient
Sony Award nominated broadcaster with a career spanning 20 years in radio.

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Paul Kenyon (BA Hons Social Sciences 1987) – 2010 Outstanding Alumni Award recipient
Paul joined the BBC as a producer in local radio and went on to be a political reporter for BBC TV in Southampton. He was eventually given his own investigative series on BBC1 called Kenyon Confronts and had his first experience with Panorama in 1999. Paul won a BAFTA in 2012 for his panorama Undercover Care: The Abuse Exposed.

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Emily Macaulay (BA Hons Criminology 2003) – 2015 Outstanding Alumni Award recipient
Emily received an MBE in 2014 for her work as chair of the Devon and Cornwall Gay Police Association (GPA). This involved leading ground-breaking activities to improve equal opportunities within the service as well as instigating the Visible and Everywhere campaign to tackle isolation of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender colleagues.

Charlie Martin (BA Hons Graphic Design 2004) – 2022 Outstanding Alumni Award recipient
Motorsport racing driver and the first-ever transgender driver to compete in the ADAC TOTAL 24hr Nürburgring-Rennen.

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Air Marshal Sir Barry "Baz" North (HND Business Studies 1981) – 2011 Outstanding Alumni Award recipient
Baz was the Assistant Chief of the Air Staff for the RAF. Highlights of his outstanding 30-year service include commanding the UK response to the flood relief operation in Mozambique, working with the Chief of Defence staff during the break-up of the Soviet Union, acting as Aide-de-Camp to the Queen and flying with the Red Arrows as their Air Officer Commanding. In April 2013 Baz was promoted to Air Marshal and became the Air Member for Personnel and Capability. He received the Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in the 2015 New Year's Honours List.

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Dafe Oboro (BA Hons Broadcast Journalism) – 2022 Outstanding Alumni Award recipient
Award-winning artist working predominantly in photography and film.

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Umamaheshwaran Panneerselvam (MRes Applied Biosciences 2010) – 2017 Outstanding Alumni Award recipient
Umamaheshwaran risked his life to save more than 500 lives across the city of Chennai and provided food and shelter to more than 3,000 people, after heavy flooding hit the area in 2015. Since leaving university, Umamaheshwaran has made himself a career in the mainstream media and now works for News7 Tamil. He has also worked as a political analyst and social media strategist for various political parties in India.

Daniel Parker (BSc Hons Coaching and Sports Science 2012; MSc Performance Analysis of Sport 2014) – 2022 Outstanding Alumni Award recipient
Men’s Performance Analyst for The Football Association.

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Mike Rayment (BA Hons International Relations and Global Politics 2006) – 2017 Outstanding Alumni Award recipient
Mike is a freelance TV producer who specialises in comedy entertainment, studio comedy, and edit producing. Mike has devised and produced tasks on BBC1's The Apprentice, written scripts for Sky One's A League of Their Own, and edit-produced packages for Channel 4's Great British Bake Off. He currently writes and produces for Have I Got News for You on BBC1 for Hat Trick Productions, and The Big Narstie Show on Channel 4 for Expectation Entertainment. He also supports NTU as an Alumni Fellow.

Adam Roberts (BA Hons Criminology 2007) – 2021 Outstanding Alumni Award recipient
Entrepreneur and founder of restaurant service Go Dine. Founded Open Kitchens during the Covid-19 pandemic, which brings together restaurants and their communities to fund, produce, and deliver meals to those in need.

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Joe Sargison (PGCE 2004) – 2013 Outstanding Alumni Award recipient
Joe set up Balls to Poverty in 2004 following a trip to Johannesburg, where he found a group of township children playing football with a bunch of rags. He gave them a football and was astounded by the effect such a simple gesture had on them.
Almost ten years later, Balls to Poverty raised more than £275,000, held 800 education workshops for South African and Ugandan coaches, and handed out more than 28,000 footballs and rugby balls to South African and Ugandan children. It won praise for the way it has used sport to help steer youngsters away from crime and drug abuse and also offers regular coaching for more than 20,000 children in Nottingham.

Amerdeep Somal (LLB Hons Laws 1988) – 2014 Outstanding Alumni Award recipient
Amerdeep was the first woman from her family to go to university, determined to pursue her dream of becoming a lawyer despite what cultural expectations dictated for her. After graduating, she worked in private practice and then the Crown Prosecution Service, before moving to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) for ten years as a commissioner and taking a lead on gender abuse and domestic violence. Amerdeep is currently the independent assessor to the board of the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).

Simon Starling (BA Hons Photography 1990) – 2007 Outstanding Alumni Award recipient
Celebrated artist and 2005 Turner Prize winner, Simon has made his name as an artist fascinated by the processes involved in transforming one object or substance into another. In solo exhibitions worldwide, he has showcased installations and pilgrimage-like journeys highlighting ideas about nature, technology, economics, modernity and mass production.

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Julie Taylor MBE (BA Hons in Education 2008; MA Education 2014) – 2022 Outstanding Alumni Award recipient
Assistant Head of Vocational Education and Post-16 Inclusion Specialist. Awarded an MBE in 2021 in recognition of her services to education and charity.

Ajay Tegala (BSc Hons Environmental Conservation and Countryside Management 2011) – 2020 Outstanding Alumni Award recipient
Wildlife television presenter, voice-over artist, countryside ranger, conservationist, and naturalist.

Louise Thomas (BSc Hons Sport (Administration and Science) 1988) – 2008 Outstanding Alumni Award recipient
Race for Life, the annual women-only 5k run in which thousands of participants raise millions for Cancer Research UK, wouldn't be what it is today without Louise Thomas (formerly known as Louise Holland). With her help and inspiration it is estimated that, since it began, Race for Life has raised over £300 million to support pioneering work in the fight against cancer.

Helen Tupper (BA Hons in Business Management 2004) – 2022 Outstanding Alumni Award recipient
Co-Founder of Amazing If, an award-winning careers company and co-hosts of the UK’s no.1 careers podcast, Squiggly Careers.

Sarah Turner (BA Hons in Furniture and Product Design 2008) – 2020 Outstanding Alumni Award recipient
Eco-artist and designer who has exhibited internationally.

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Victoria Van Garrett (Foundation Degree in Science for Games Technology) – 2022 Outstanding Alumni Award recipient
QA Project Lead for PlayStation.

Amy Voce (BA Hons Communication Studies 2005) – 2020 Outstanding Alumni Award recipient
Sony and Radio Academy Gold award winning broadcaster and podcast presenter.

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Matt Wallace (BA Hons Communication Studies 2002) – 2012 Outstanding Alumni Award recipient
Giving up a full-time job, fundraiser Matt Wallace set out in September 2011 and walked over 1,500 miles from John O'Groats to Land's End via 16 cancer research centres. He raised almost £25,000 for Cancer Research UK.

Thomas Wilson (BSc Hons Sports Science Management 2014) – 2020 Outstanding Alumni Award recipient
Posthumous award for his outstanding services to the community and his selfless decision to become an organ donor.

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